Strasbourg, 22 June 2009- The
Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO)
today published its Third Round Evaluation Report on Belgium,
following the agreement of the Belgian authorities. It focuses on
two distinct themes:
criminalisation of corruption and
transparency of party funding.

Numerous aspects of Belgian law on corruption offences meet the
requirements of the
Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (ETS 173) and its
Additional Protocol (ETS 191). Moreover, Belgian practice
reflects the country's genuine capacity to bring various corrupt
activities before the courts, especially since the abandonment in
1999 of the need to establish that there was a prior agreement
between the two parties or that the proposal of one had been
accepted by the other.
The effectiveness of the provisions could be strengthened still
further by recalling that receiving an advantage - within the
meaning of the Convention – is an offence. Furthermore, thanks to
broad jurisdiction, it is easy to prosecute in Belgium
cross-border corruption offences, but it would be appropriate to
clarify certain aspects. GRECO also invited Belgium to withdraw or
not renew its reservations to the Convention, which concern in
particular the incrimination of trading in influence and that of
bribery in the private sector.

GRECO also considers that political parties' various activities
and structures should be better accounted for in the financial
statements, and that there is room for improving the rules
governing donations as well as the control mechanism since the
parliamentary control commissions have not been able to establish
their authority over time and remain shackled by their political
composition. A fairly wide range of sanctions are available to
help enforce the rules but in certain cases, questions can be
asked about their proportionality and dissuasiveness.

The report addresses a total of 15 recommendations to Belgium.
GRECO will assess the implementation of these recommendations in
the second half of 2010, through its specific compliance procedure.